Question:Tom - Back in your Cruising World days, you wrote an article on dingy davits - from what I remember, they were similar to some of the boat lifts I have seen. We are finally living aboard our Morgan OI 416 and on our way down the ICW for the first time. We are currently towing our dingy which is basically a pain in the behind. We bought a Boss 10' fiberglass dingy which looks basically like a 10' inflatable but is fiberglass. I'm happy with the dingy but it is somewhat heavier than the normal inflatable - about 200 # empty. The first boating crisis I had to face was a collapsed davit during some moderately heavy weather. While looking at what was available, the only thing I can find is the Adkins - Hoyle? davits which give me the needed capacity but are expensive. If I am in that cost bracket, I wondered how the cost would compare with the davits you described. Could you give me some information on the fabricator of the davits you described and any further insight as to how you like them. Thanks

~Dinghy Chaser

Answer To:Dinghy Chaser

Sorry to be so long answering. I'm underway. I've never had "shelf" davits. I think that davits need to be built and designed specifically for the boat. That said, I can't say that there are no good shelf davits-I've just had my own built for the boat. There are many issues to consider such as how and where they'll be mounted on the boat, what parts of the boat can handle the stress, how it'll be used, how it'll deal with boarding sea astern and the tender itself. Many davits don't handle lateral stress well. This occurs as the boat rolls from side to side, swinging the tender. This is a critical issue that must be addressed. My current arrangement is a hydraulic platform. There's one 12 volt hydraulic motor and one ram that lifts the platform with a mechanism specifically designed for the purpose. I can drive my dingy on, push a button, and up we go-the tender, 25 HP motor, several tanks of gas and me. Same for lowering it. When the tender isn't loaded I can use the platform as a swim or dive platform. You can stop it anywhere. The ram and lift mechanism is in the middle rather than one on each side so that it'll work on many sailboats. It was built by Marine Lift Technology, Inc. (954 527 0180). Towing your dinghy is a bad idea. Eventually you'll probably loose it, or find it wrapped in your prop.

About Marine Lift Technology, Inc.

Since 1988 Marine Lift Technology has been manufacturing and installing hundreds of systems for satisfied customers throughout the world. We continue to lead the industry in technology, engineering, design and customer service. Our engineers have worked with a wide variety of yachts and manufacturers to develop lifts and installation appropriate to each vessel. This ensures that the lift compliments your boat's individual lines and does not interfere aesthetically with the shilouette, or inhibit performance.